Stranglehold - PS3

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Summary:

Experience the excitement of true next-gen action as you take on the role of Inspector Tequila from John Woo’s influential action film, Hard Boiled starring Chow Yun-Fat. Ensnared by a crime boss with a gripping secret, Inspector Tequila is forced to cross the line from sworn duty to bloody revenge. Engage your enemies with intense cinematic gun battles and cause massive environmental damage in real-time or revolutionary slow motion Tequila Time. Honor is his code. Vengeance is his mission. Bloodshed is his only option... Experience the excitement of the true next-gen action while continuing the story of John Woo's influential action film. Engage your enemies with intense cinematic gun battles and cause massive environmental damage in real-time or revolutionary slow-motion Tequila Time.

6.5

For the gamers who have played this and were able to get used to the various functions and features of the game, only one thing comes into mind. Yes, I know its Max Payne. Although what the producers really wanted was a video game remake of the movie Hard Boiled, but the game was able to become more than just a movie remake and borrow many elements from Max Payne and use it for its own advantage.

You take on the role of Inspector Tequila, a well-known cop in Hong Kong who is brave enough to take on any case. Well with the same situation as that of the movie, stranglehold is a third person shooting game that well, let me see, allows you to shoot people, and what else? Ah yes shoot some more. Believe me, that is all that you are going to need in this game as the body count piles up as you proceed from chapter to chapter.

Of course the game would be plain boring if it did not have nothing else to offer rather than a plate full of bullets, so it has Tequila time, which is in other words moving in bullet time as you gain more flexibility in dodging bullets and getting a better aim and also an improved firing rate. (I told you it is Max Payne plus John Woo)

But aside from the matrix ability to avoid bullets, you can also make use of the different things in the environment to aid you in your cause. You can run up to a table and kick it so that you can have a temporary cover against bullets. Or you can also shoot the wooden signs over an enemy to make it fall on him. You may not notice it, but really these small details make action movies way cooler than just shooting people and getting away with it. But that feature also means the fall of the game. If you would take on missions, you need to find certain points and shoot them to be able to make way for yourself or solve puzzles. Which in one point really frustrating, you just killed all the enemies in the stage and what you are looking for is just a piece of wood to shoot and make a new path for yourself and if you are not keen enough to find it, then good luck for the next hour.

Furthermore, there is another gauge that fills up as you shoot your enemies. Upon filling that gauge you get access to the tequila bombs, an option that allows you fill up your health or even spin around like tazmania and shoot the heck off the enemies. These are all useful, and the option on which one to choose lies on your perception.

The last feature of the game are the stand offs. In this part of the game (which many people would call a mini game) tequila is going to meet up with a number of enemies and after a small talk they will draw their guns and see who shoots faster. This part may get tough as you need to avoid and shoot the enemies at the same time by using the analog sticks. But this portion may not suit your taste in reality, because the enemies shoot one person at a time which defeats the purpose of them becoming a group. Like why would 5 people take turns in shooting an enemy if they all had their own guns? But nevertheless, this is an interesting part of stranglehold that may challenge most players.

The game features are good but they cannot get away without a stain. For instance, the AIs are smart enough to run towards you if you take cover for a long time (which I doubt if you can do so as most things in the surroundings are fragile and they break quickly). This means, that you should get a hold of the controls before you proceed with the other levels, not a really newbie-friendly game. The producers put a lot of detail to the environment which is both the good and the bad point of the game. The falling glasses and things crumbling down are nice to see, but the character themselves are not well designed. The multiplayer is not also a good experience as the game play in multiplayer is pretty much the same with the single player mode. Not to mention that players can’t use tequila time if they do not have a full tequila meter, with that, who needs to use tequila time if the multiplayer game is too fast for you to fill up the meter?

Overall, with the features of Stranglehold it seems that it is not going to fire up the entire action genre of video games. It is nice in its own right but I wish there was more to it than just shooting people in the face and falling billboards for an attraction. But the action that it offers can spice up that boring living room and give you entertainment for as long as it lasts.

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